Condiments

ARTICLES ABOUT CONDIMENTS BY DATE - PAGE 2

You've been grilling burgers for a couple weeks now, and you're thinking it's about time to up your game, to move beyond the ketchup-relish-mustard rut. It's time to strut your stuff. But you don't know where to start, right? Many high-profile chefs have been playing with burger toppings, coming up with inventive approaches to the traditional so-so toppers. Some then have opened upscale burger restaurants and written cookbooks — Bobby Flay and Hubert Keller are among them — to showcase their creations.

The Chicago French Market, which opens Thursday in the Ogilvie Transportation Center's commuter concourse, is a tempting and convenient stop for commuters on the run. But it's also a playground for food enthusiasts to stroll, linger, sniff, sample and savor the myriad offerings of two dozen food vendors. Time it right and you can enjoy pastries with an "espesso" coffee foam designed by superstar Spanish chef Ferran Adria for breakfast, and wander and explore until lunch, when you'll have to chose among an impressive number of great choices.

If you think the best Thanksgiving pairing is Detroit versus Green Bay, you clearly don't make cheese balls. A staple at many a holiday feast, the vaunted cheese ball will be missing a key ingredient this year after Kraft discontinued its Roka Blue cheese spread. Corporate bigwigs versus Thanksgiving tradition: Oh, it's on. "Unfortunately, there just wasn't enough demand for it in the marketplace to support our continuing to produce it," Angela Wiggins, Kraft's senior manager for corporate affairs, said.

Build it, and they will come. A buffet, that is. Or a salad bar. Give people any opportunity to load up on toppings and condiments, really, and the line starts forming. Don't believe us? There's loads of support for the theory at Falafill, a new Boystown counter-service spot offering little more than basic falafel sandwiches and salads with one big bonus: a complimentary pass through a well-stocked condiment bar. The bright, modern and perhaps too tiny operation is the brainchild of brothers Marwan and Maher Chebaro and partner Nemer Ziyad, who cribbed the general concept from a falafel joint they came across in the Netherlands.

This week, we venture to the South Side and beyond for a neighborhood burger you've never heard of, and another that has been an area favorite for 61 years. Schoop's Hamburgers "Schoop's Double Cheeseburger" $7.49 I would like to quote from the home page of Schoop's Hamburgers: "Schoop's hamburgers have been a part of the Calumet Region of Indiana and Illinois since 1948. It's the area southeast of Chicago where gutsy workers make steel, refine oil and build things big."

Frugality is the new black. Throw in the terms "eco-friendly" and "healthier," and the result is a trifecta of hip. Who knew packing a lunch could symbolize so much? "It's every penny counts," says Kevin Wehr, an assistant professor of sociology at California State University, Sacramento. "It's expensive to go out to eat, and when people have fewer dollars in their pockets, it's a cheap and easy way to reduce expenses." American adults carried 8.5 billion lunches from home in 2007, the most recent figure available, according to the NPD Group consumer market research firm.

Bruce Lindsay knew a good bargain when he saw one: For decades, the millionaire ate three meals a day in the cafeteria of tiny Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, Calif., surrounded by students who called him the "campus grandpa." When he passed away last month at 79, the college learned just what a generous tip he had left. He bequeathed his fortune -- amassed by buying up cut-rate oil leases and flipping beachfront homes -- to the Christian university, which is still calculating the value of his estate, estimated to be at least several million dollars.

There was a time when burger condiments were left in the hands of folks named Heinz and French. But as Chicago chefs increasingly embrace the upscale burger and other dressed-up comfort foods, they've fashioned a pool of artisanal condiments to match. In the past year we've seen a handful of house-made ketchups from C-House, Province and The Bristol. They joined existing zippy ketchups at Kuma's Corner (fortified by ground giardiniera), Yoshi's Cafe (spiked with mango), Bluprint (seasoned like a bloody mary)